March 26, 1979 … the night March Madness was born.
Top-ranked and undefeated Indiana State University, led by a fella named Larry Bird, met the third-ranked Michigan State Spartans and a dude named Earvin “Magic” Johnson on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City for the 1979 NCAA Championship.
At the time the pair met, the NCAA Tournament was a quaint little affair of just 40 schools. The next year it was bumped to 48 and by 1985 it was at 64. The ratings for this game topped out at 35% of U.S. televisions and led to seismic jumps in rights fees to the current amount of roughly $900 million per year. What’s more, back in the 1970s, not all games were televised nationally. Today, someone with solid remote control skills and plenty of caffeine for the early rounds could see the tips and finishes of every game live.
Much of this is attributed to the two men in this week’s Fan Teaser. As former Marquette University coach and later NBC college basketball analyst Al McGuire said, “The college game was already on the launching pad. Then Bird and Magic came along and pushed the button.”
Kaboom!
For more reading, check out this Michael Wilbon piece from the Washington Post back in 2009, when the game was but a mere 30-years-old.
Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.